We haven’t talked about Balthazar Getty in a while. Getty used to be a gossip staple circa 2008, which is when he abandoned his wife and children to run off with Sienna Miller. Sienna and Balthy spent months flaunting their affair in sun-soaked beaches in Europe and then, suddenly, they were done and Balthy returned to his wife, Rosetta Getty. You can see Rosetta and Balthazar together in these photos from June of this year. Ever since Balthy returned to her, Rosetta has had that same smug look, like “I told you he would come back.” I never understood that whole thing – why did Balthazar leave his wife in the first place? Why did he conduct his affair so openly, as if he was daring his wife to divorce him? Why did Rosetta stay with him and fight to save a marriage to Getty? Granted, Balthazar is insanely rich (he’s probably got $300 million or more of family money) but is all of that money worth the humiliation? When Balthazar came back to her, Rosetta even organized a happy-family photo shoot with Harper’s Bazaar. It was the weirdest thing.
Anyway, now that most people have forgotten the particulars of that whole sordid mess in 2008, Balthazar Getty feels free enough to give an interview about his life. He’s 41 years old and he’s sort of a DJ/musician, because why not? Getty gave a rare interview to the Evening Standard this week, and some of these quotes are just… wow.
His 2008 affair with Sienna Miller: The affair is “ancient history”, he says, “another lifetime”, something he doesn’t talk about any more, except to say that going back to his wife Rosetta, 46, a fashion designer, has made their marriage “stronger”. “Without going down, you can’t rise again,” he says — a little awkwardly.
Turning 40: He decided it was “time to put fire under my ass”. He needed to take stock, quit smoking cigarettes and stop whinging about being worth £200 million and everyone judging him for it, he says. “I’ve gotten more comfortable with who I am. Where I come from, being ‘a Getty’. I don’t see it any more as something I have to run from, or prove to people that I’m not who they might perceive me to be. I’ve been able to own that and feel good about it.”
He bought a Porsche Turbo: “It was my first ‘F*** You’ car. I haven’t normally done that. And that’s part of being OK with ‘it’ [being a Getty].”
The guilt that comes with massive inherited wealth: “It’s termed Bread of Shame when you are given things that you don’t earn.”
Are his kids spoiled? “Of course they are incredibly spoiled and that’s because I am, and they are a part of my world. They didn’t ask at a young age to be flown first class.” On the other hand, to help them realise “how lucky they are” and give them “a real sense of gratitude”, Balthazar “always exposes them to the harshness and the realities of poverty. “Even as young kids they were putting together food boxes and delivering them at night to the homeless in LA. California has a huge disparity between the ultra-ultra rich and poor and I’ve always made them aware of it. The last thing I wanted was rich, entitled brats.”
He acted for a while but: “Music was my mistress and then ultimately became my wife”.
His home life: “We’re an ordinary family. At least five days a week we have supper together. No TV, none of that. We sit and talk. Everybody shares about their day. And I play with them — sports, games, play songs, drawing, painting, whatever it is.”
Whether he has an army of staffers: “Look, I do have a very full, very blessed life, full of great people who allow me to be very comfortable, and for that I am very grateful. So probably some of the clichés are true, but it doesn’t define me.”
Bread of Shame??? I’ve never heard that before. It sounds like the kind of slang rich people use amongst themselves. “Yar, it’s so difficult to maintain the Porsche bought with the bread of shame.” As for his comments on his affair with Sienna Miller… um… “Without going down, you can’t rise again.” Filthy. And I doubt his marriage is that much stronger, more like he’s just on a tighter lease these days. And for what reason? I still don’t get it.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
He probably could’ve found a better way to describe an affair…also, if you’ve been caught in a very public affair, probably should refrain from describing anything as your mistress?
At first I didn’t think the quote was that bad…and then I realized he was basically implying that Sienna was “down” and it was all her fault. So seriously, f*ck this dude. I seem to remember back when this all went down too that he either made a comment/leaked a story in which he seemingly pinned all the blame on her.
Yeah, YIKES!
“Music is my mistress and ultimately became my wife”
(great line tbh) but NOT here Balthazar, not here.
Or dressing like a Pope
My recollection was that he was very good looking. Hmmm.
He has not aged well. He looks much older than 41.
He is only 41?! What! Yeah I remembered him as being really good looking too. Hmmm
Has he had some work done? He looks unrecognizable in that second pic.
I just watched that David Lynch movie he was in and he was hot then. What happened? Plus, he was an up and coming actor, with a lot of talent as I recall. I wonder why he left the business?
Although if I has $200M, I’d retire too.
Yeah, I feel like I used to always confuse him and Liev Schrieber. Not so much anymore.
“Without going down, you can’t rise again,” BWAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA
Let me Fix it: Without Going Down on Sienna, you can’t Rise again ( for the second round)
thank you for fixing that!!
Yeah, that was my reaction too.
Phrasing. It’s important.
LOL, that’s exactly where my mind went. Filthy, filthy mind.
Chiming in late but yeah me too.
My other gut reaction was, “What are you, the Titanic?”
Is there any other way to read that? It’s barely innuendo. Just straight up naughty talk.
I am going to be saying “Bread of Shame” all day.
Sounds like a good name for a cover band comprised of rich douche-bags.
Bread of Shame sounds like someone falling off their low-carb diet.
Hehe. .good one..perhaps he should try a whole grain bread of salvation
Wow that comment was everything. He basically just called Sienna trashy, which she was back then.
So was he.
@Sullivan
If anything, I kind of find him worse since he’s basically always pinned all the blame on Sienna and tried to make it out like she cast a magic spell to make his d*c wander.
I feel like I have to preface this with I am in no way defending Sienna’s mistakes back then or some poster will jump on me, but that whole affair really brought out the ugly side of the media. It escalated from normal backlash/negative press to slap a scarlet letter on her and burn her at the stake. I remember when someone spray-painted something like “whore” on her house and the tabloids acted like that was “funny” (ugh). I imagine it would have been even worse if twitter wasn’t in its infancy back then.
This comment is not meant to absolve him in any way-as the one who was married with kids at the time of the affair, he was and is trash, and should shoulder the bulk of the blame. However, there is a certain type of sick, entitled person (male or female) who takes particular joy in “landing”, for lack of a better word, a partner who is already spoken for. Sienna appears to be one of those people. He was not the first married man she set her sights on, and I doubt he’ll be the last.
Apropos of nothing, he looks like fresh hell.
Starkiller,
Actually the correct term is a “poacher,” and yes, Miller, is definitely one of those, as is many, in Hollywood.
I believe, but I could be incorrect, the term “poacher” became popular after using it to describe Elizabeth Taylor.
That poor guy. It cannot be easy being filthy rich.
That whole family is so messed up, it’s epic. Even the seemingly normal members have secret families, etc.
It can’t be easy, but I’d give it a go. I think I could do it 🙂
What is he wearing? Is that a cassock?
I think is some sort of an indian sherwani
ahhhhh….could be.
Wow dude, glad you were able to endure such a hard hand life dealt you.
He used to be hot back in 2008. Nowadays…not so much.
Also: he seems like a spoiled bratt himself…oh poor me I am so rich will go get a porsche with the bread of shame to console myself…lolz
He does not sound like someone I want to know anymore about.
I thought he was pushing 40 back when he was on that Calista Flockhart show. Would not have guessed 41 now.
I think they had a bunch of kids and his wife likes the Getty aspect. I don’t get it. Even without the affair, he sounds insufferable.
I thought he was so cute in Lord of the Flies when I was a kid. I had a huge crush. He should have stuck to acting. There was something there.
Me too! I loved him then so much……… since Lord of The Flies…… and I love him more as I am rewatching Alias.
The most surprising thing to me is that he’s only 41. Dude looks way older to me.
I think she just has resting smug face, she always looks like that. also, I’m not at allllll a forgive and forget type of person but I’m not going to judge her for taking him back. I’ve no doubt they put a lot of work into getting that train back on track after his shenanigans and it has been almost a decade, so good for them for working it out.
Yuck. I’ve never looked at him or sienna again without seeing those boat pictures in my head.
I loved him on Brothers & Sisters.
I can’t relate to his life, but I doubt I can relate to his wife either. Maybe it was an early midlife crisis, and that’s how she looked at it when he came running back with his tail between his legs.
Women like Rosetta never leave, and her friends are bred to ignore it all.
Yes. He probably had permission to sleep around so her only gripe would be being displaced as lady of the manor. Since Sienna never got a proposal and he never sent divorce papers, the incident is easily forgotten.
Well, money talks…
Women: We can actually chose to stay with a cheating man or have some self-respect and tell them to piss off. Its up to us to change that behavior.
He seems like a jerk, but what his dad went through? (Shudders) That’s some horrible stuff and it definitely seems to have destroyed him and paved the way for Balthazar to have a very odd childhood.
Do fill us in on papa Balthazar.
It’s all in the article, but basically his dad was kidnapped by the mob when he was sixteen, his grandfather refused to pay any ransom until they cut off the kid’s ear, and grandad agrees to pay a lesser amount and that it has to be repaid by his own family. With interest. His dad fathered him when he was eighteen and was paralyzed and blind from drugs/alcohol by the time Balthazar was five.
I vaguely remember reading about the dad. He was kidnapped and the grandfather (the man who made the fortune) refused to pay the ransom. You can read the whole thing here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Paul_Getty_III
Ermmm
Maybe I read this too quickly but I didn’t take offense or think he was throwing anyone under a bus.
Bad choice of phrasing, yes. But the analogy was right: you have to “fall down” to get back up” he’s talking about himself and his life. And he made that clear when he referenced not only with the affair which to me stemmed from him not being comfortable in his own skin his own life of wealth not earned so he escaped. I think some are reading too much into this. It’s not ref Sienna at all. They both did dirt but he definitely needed to get his shit together and it sounds like he needed to hit “rock bottom” to do so. Not a surprise. As far as his wife taking him back… I don’t know. I follow her career which is booming. She doesn’t need Getty – like most think, I’d say she knew why he was falling apart and prob made him beg but prob saved his life at the same time. I’ve never followed his film career but I’ve seen her work lately mentioned a lot. She’s doing very well.
Thank you, @Trinity. I was going to say the same thing re he’s not throwing Sienna under the bus, he’s saying *he* was at a low point then, period.
I hardly know of the guy, but I do know that the only people who know what is going on inside a marriage are the principals themselves. Why get all judgy on him and is wife? If they’ve worked something out that works for both of them and neither is being abused, so be it. End of story.
He was on the motorcycle show with Norman Readus and was soooo unlikeable in my opinion.
I don’t think that smug look is “I told you he would come back.”
Its more like “He came back. I pegged him on camera and will release it if I ever hear so much of a whisper of him committing adultery ever again.”
Haha! I like your interpretation far better.
I always thought it was weird that she took him back after he embarrassed the family so much. But what else do you expect from a privileged rich AF man child? She totally stayed with him for the money. Like obviously. Shes a lot more mature then he is that’s for sure. Such a weird family life in my opinion.
That family picture is just embarrassing, looks forced. Each to their own but I know if you publicly embarrass me, guess what you shall publicly apologize as well before we even start the conversation of getting back together.
I cringed at his comment about how he doesn’t let his kids watch TV so they can talk about their day and spend ‘quality’ time togetheir. Poor little buggers probably get enough structered time at school. Do they need to come home to it?
I didn’t even recognize him. His face is much thinner.
The only acting I remember him in was Charmed and I didn’t like him at all. Pretty bad acting.
With his money I would have expected something better than a Porsche. That’s a 16 year old rich kid car, not an extremely wealthy grown man car.
Wow, i don’t remember them continuing their affair even after they got caught. That’s a whole new level of disrespect.
I hate Sienna was slut shamed because of that affair and nothing of that harsh comments were aimed to him, the other part f the shame, even more because he was the committed one. Of course, that’s not new and it will never stop, but at least I hope women will change pointing the finger towards other women and give a pass to men, just because it was is expected from them.
This ^^
Oh stop with the whole thou shall not shame bit. Some behaviors are shameful and should be called out! Balthazar absolutely shares most of the blame but so does sienna who knowingly cheated with him. I am so sick of everything being called slut shaming when it’s not even the case here. And many many people were equally if not more harsh with balthazar, no one let him off the hook.
If I recall, Sienna took the brunt of it because he was her second married man after Jude law, so the media was extremely harsh on her with the Getty affair.
I loved him so much when I was 14 (I’m now 39). He was so cute in Lord of the Flies and Young Guns 2
As the great Dorothy Parker once said, “If you want to know what God thinks about money, just look at the people he gave it to.”
I am going to copy down this Dorothy Parker quotation and I will forever be grateful to you for introducing me to it.
Who is this guy???
No he wife has that “I’m stuck with him because we have kids” look😂😂
I wonder why he’s decided to talk about it now. Perhaps because he can put distance/time between the affair and where he is now in life.
There’s a sexual joke somewhere in that quote …
Wait … @QQ beat me to it! LOL.
That’s what she said???
oh my goodness…..”Bread of Shame” is a 2009 by Creed
“…Bread of shame
When the world says I’ve changed
Bread of shame
Just promise me fame I’ll survive on the bread of shame…”
Article omits some salient information…
Rosetta Getty, nee Millington, is not some downtrodden little housewife. She grew up in the same wealthy circles as Getty, was a successful model from the age of 14 and has created, run and sold several highly successful clothing companies. She is VERY rich and successful in her own right, FAR more so than him. He is just a failed actor who has his parents’ cash. And, apparently a “DJ”.
Because 41-year-old DJs are in such high demand.
As anyone who has ever been involved with the film industry in the UK in even the most passing way knows, Sienna Miller will sleep with anything that moves as long as she thinks it can advance her career or has money (regardless of the fact that she has always lived off her rich father). If it’s married to someone else, that doesn’t really matter.
Rosetta did not take kindly to Sienna trying to ensnare her husband, refused to divorce him, essentially dragged him home and made him pay dearly for his transgression, then used her contacts to have Sienna driven out of Hollywood.
And I wonder who arranged for that “SLUT” graffiti to be added to Sienna’s front door in Notting Hill.
Sienna should just be glad that Rosetta seems to have moved on now and doesn’t care about her anymore.
If Rosetta decided to kick Balthazar to the curb, she’d do it in a heartbeat.
Bringing your kids to a homeless food outreach event once in awhile doesn’t really teach millionaire kids humility. There’s a lot more to it.